Day 144 of Firsts: Swing on the Trapeze

Any workout which does not involve a certain minimum of danger or responsibility does not improve the body – it just wears it out. ~Norman Mailer

Outside of the Polar Bear Plunge, this might be the coolest First I’ve done.

I went to circus school! It’s actually called the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts. My teacher was Niff Nicholls, the Aerial Program Coordinator.

Check her out in the video. She makes it all look so easy. Then watch me. Ha. You gotta be tough to be a trapeze chick! I had to start by learning how to climb a rope.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVKSSuOAbXY&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

My arms and hands got so tired. You really need a lot of upper body strength and core strength to do this. Very challenging.

That white stuff all over me? Chalk. (I kept wiping my sweaty chalky hands on myself.) I was beat when I was done after an hour but think I’d like to come back to this. I have no interest in being a circus performer, (well, maybe one day when I grow up), but what a great different kind of workout.

What I did today is some of what you would learn in the first day if you take classes.